Saturday, 26 May 2012

An annual award ceremony, promoting the
‘excellence’ and ‘innovation’ of the independent healthcare sector is taking
place in London, Thursday, the 31st of May. However, on close inspection, the finalists of this
year’s event are notable for their connections to our so-called public servants,
many of whom played some part in passing the Health and Social Care bill into an
Act.

Black tie evening at the Grosvenor

The dress code is black tie; the setting, the plush surroundings of Central London’s Grosvenor Hotel, the cost of a table for ten, £3,000. Austerity, it seems, has not yet reached the pockets of the private healthcare companies increasingly
making money from the our National Health Service. Welcome to the annual HealthInvestor
Awards 2012, where companies taking their piece from the NHS pie will meet, for a pat on the back for a job well done.

Even before we go into this year’s finalists,
we should take a look at a few of last year’s winners. First up, under the category ‘Consultants of the Year’, the winner was a company called L.E.K
consulting. They have Conservative Peer, Lord Wakeham working for them as an
advisor, the Rt Honourable Malcolm Rifkind who is a member of the advisory
board, and Conservative MP for Bedford, Richard Fuller, who worked for the
company from 1984 to 2007. L.E.K consultancy is a global company, which specialises
in healthcare, providing services, which include, business growth, and ‘new opportunities with government.’ Success
comes often to L.E.K consultancy, who won the Healthcare Sector Adviser of the
Year Award for the supposedly ‘prestigious’ Acquisitions Monthly awards, in 2010. Across Europe, L.E.K. have provided commercial advice on 19
healthcare sector transactions, one of which being Bridgepoint’s £414 million acquisition of Care UK. Everyone but seemingly the BBC, judging by their lack of
challenging on this subject, know that John Nash the chairman of Care UK bankrolled Andrew Lansley’s office.

BBC chief - Lord Patten of Barnes

Bridgepoint, a private equity investment
company have BBC chief, Lord Patten of Barnes, as a member of the advisory
board. Bridgepoint, have
been involved in 17 healthcare
deals over
recent years, which include four in the UK, one of which being Care UK, at a
combined investment worth over £1.1 billion.Another deal saw Tunstall,
a telehealth company with contracts in the NHS, acquired by Charterhouse
Development Company for £555 million; who have another Lord Patten as their senior advisor. Four companies were involved in the
transaction, including; Goldman Sachs, Clifford Chance, KPMG, and LEK, three of
which have Lords in senior positions. Lord Griffiths is a
director at Goldman Sachs; Lord Harris is a senior advisor at KPMG, and as we
know, Lord Wakeham is an adviser to LEK.

Perhaps
unsurprisingly then, Tunstall made up the other winner of the 2011 awards,
under the category Telehealth/Telecare, smoothly linking the three winners in
the awards to companies who have members of both the House of Commons and
House of Lords on their payroll.

So onto
2012, and what are the chances of a company winning an award this year that has
an MP or Lord on its books? The answer would appear to be very good, given that
25 of these year’s finalists pay or donate to our parliamentarians.

Lord Clement-Jones

Let’s start with
DLA Piper, a global law firm who provide lobbying services to “clients in the
health and social care sectors”. DLA Piper counts failed Care Home
provider, Southern Cross amongst
its clients. Lord Clement-Jones nominated Lord Hameed for his peerage, a
nomination supported by Lord Dholakia. Lord Hameed sits on the board of Alpha
hospitals, part of the Alpha Healthcare (C&C Alpha/C&C business
solutions) group. The Alpha group has made significant donations to the Liberal
Democrat party. The Times exposed Lord Clement-Jones as being the man who
nominated Lord Hameed, after the peer had originally said he had 'no idea.'

L.E.K. consulting find themselves in with a chance again this year, in the
‘Strategic consultant of the year’, category, alongside FTI consulting, who
have Lord Malloch-Brown as their Chairman of Global Affairs. FTI produced an article
called ‘Time for Change’, in September last year, promoting the benefits of the
Health and Social Care Act.

Care UK, directly linked to Andrew Lansley through their chairman’s
donation to his office, are in the running under the ‘Diagnostics Provider of
the Year’, Category for their Rotherham Centre. Just as well they are not in the
running for the best financially run company, given their huge debt, revealed
by Corporate Watch, in their Care UK fact sheet. Bridgepoint
issued a ‘£250 million bond, secured against Care UK’s assets, to fund its
acquisition in 2010. It is paying a massive 9.75% interest a year on this,
meaning £25 million is leaving the company every year, going straight to banks
and financiers.’

Even the sponsorship of the event involves a
company with a Peer at the helm. DAC Beachcroft, an international law firm, have
Lord Hunt of Wirral as a partner. As the Health and Social Care bill
was being debated in the House of Lords, Beachcroft, heavily involved in
healthcare, positioned
itself into an alliance led by Capita, which was making money from developing
the new Clinical Commissioning groups (CCGs). All this as Lord Hunt of Wirral
was voting loyally helping the bill pass into Act.

The list goes on and you can see the full finalists with the various
Lords and MPs listed next to the company involved, here.

So, as people worry about the future of the
National Health Service, the Grosvenor Hotel will be full of companies
benefitting from a system that allows our MPS and Lords to vote despite a
conflict of interest. A bill that had no mandate from any party, in a sector
that financially links 142 Lords
and multiple MPs (ongoing)
to companies involved in private healthcare. No doubt there will be a glass or
two raised to the passing of the Health and Social Care bill, and to a very
profitable future.

This list makes up the finalists involved in the Private Healthcare Award ceremony, HealthInvestor 2012, which has an MP or Lord next to the company they are involved in. This list, which highlights the self-interest may well not be complete and if you know of any companies that have MPS and Lords involved in them, please let me know by emailing me at andrewfiskar@gmail.com - View the article on the event here.

ADVISORY

Corporate
financier of the year

Catalyst
Corporate Finance

Deloitte –
Donates to the government through researchers to all parties.

Grant Thornton –
Provided policy advise to George Osborne in 2008. James Purnell as senior
advisor former Labour secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Hazlewoods

Investec

Jefferies
International

KPMG – Lord
Harris of Harringey – Senior advisor; Lord Hastings, Global Head of Citizenship
and Diversity for global tax; Baroness Manningham-Buller – had speaking
arrangement for KPMG, Charles Clarke, former Labour MP for Norwich South, In
2008 was listed as a consultant to KPMG.

RBS – David
Davies MP for Haltemprice and Howden has shares in RBS, John Hemming MP for
Birmingham, Yardley, has shares in RBS, In 2008, Jonathan Djanology MP for
Huntingdon, Dominic Grieve MP for Beaconsfield, had shares in RBS, Philip
Hammond were guests of RBS at Wimbledon

Care UK
Rotherham Diagnostic Centre - Andrew Lansley MP for Cambridgeshire South’s
office was bankrolled by donation from Care UK chairman John Nash. Lord
Hamilton of Epsom is a director of management consultancy MSB LTD who have Care
UK as one of their clients.

Thursday, 24 May 2012

An award ceremony
for companies involved in private healthcare, is being sponsored by a company
who has a Conservative Lord as their partner, and who moved their company in a
position to make money form the healthcare reforms as the Health and Social
Care bill was being debated in the Lords.

The Healthinvestors
awards are described by the website as being ‘the biggest night of the year for
the independent health sector.’ Their claim is accurate, as the list of last
years attendees reads like a who’s, who in the private healthcare sector,
including ‘key names from across the political and commercial spectrum.’

One attendee of
this year’s event, taking place in the swanky Grosvenor hotel, London on May 31st
is certain to be one of the sponsors, the international law firm Beachcroft,
who came to the attention of Social
Investigations when it was discovered that as the Health and Social Care
bill was being debated in the House of Lords, Beachcroft positioned itself into
an alliance led by Capita, which was making money from developing the new
Clinical Commissioning groups (CCGs).

Lord Hunt of Wirral

Beachcroft, like so
many organisations involved in healthcare, has a parliamentarian in their
ranks, and this case it is Lord Hunt of Wirral. The Tory Peer was a senior
partner at Beachcroft Wansboroughs now DAC Beachcroft from 1996 until 2005,
whereupon he became chairman of the firm’s financial services division. He is
now a partner of the firm.

When speaking in a
House of Lords debate on health in October 2010, he said: ‘Many of the
Government's commitments will require primary legislation, and a Bill is due to
be introduced later this year which will attract considerable attention not
only from within the NHS but from firms in the private health sector and from
professional advisers.’

Seven months before
the Conservative Peer made that statement, and five months before the
government publically released their White Paper: Equity and excellence: Liberating
the NHS: Beachcroft were busy strengthening their healthcare team. In an article appearing in the lawyer, it revealed how Beachcroft
were raiding a ‘10-strong team of lawyers from Halliwells’ healthcare
practice.’ Head of healthcare Nigel Montgomery told the lawyer: “It
[healthcare] is absolutely a growth area and has grown substantially over the
last three years,”

Further depth to
their healthcare team was made following the appointment of partner Eve Gregory, from legal giant Eversheds, a firm that had
already lost a five-strong health team in the health sector to Beachcroft in
2008.

Beachcroft’s
influence cannot be overstated, with the law firm having over 300 health
clients; Beachcroft is one of the largest commercial law firms in the UK and is
widely regarded as the leading legal adviser to the health and social care
sector. In July this year, Peter Lee, former Partner and now consultant at Beachcroft,
was appointed Chairman of The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust. In the same
month, the NHS Commercial Alliance, a new procurement partnership set up
in 2010, selected 11 law firms in one of the largest legal services framework
agreements in the country, valued at £20m for up to four years. The framework agreement, which was awarded last month, covers
eight lots, and Beachcroft are represented in every one of them.

Lord Hunt is not
the only parliament representative they’ve had; Charles Clarke – the former Labour MP for
Norwich South was once listed as a consultant to Beachcroft LLP. The MP was
roundly condemned by those on the left of the party for his statement
suggesting people should be charged for 'peripheral
treatments'.

Beachcroft who have
just launched a new updated guide for Clinical Commissioning Groups at the
beginning of April, are all set to make money from the continued CCG
development process. Capita who have won multiple contracts to develop the new
CCGs, are leading the way, sponsoring the Clinical Commissioning conference
titled: ‘‘Defining Our Future’, taking place today (24th April) in
London.

Perhaps it goes
without saying, but say it I will, Lord Hunt of Wirral was able to vote on the
Health and Social care bill, and vote he did; loyally with the government in all key divisions. His
connection to a company involved in private healthcare makes him one of the 27%
of Conservative Lords with such interests.

Beachcroft are
listed as a 2012 finalist at the awards under the category ‘Legal advisors of
the year – private’, I suspect their chances of winning are rather good.

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

We understand that humans will potentially behave
badly when they have power or are faced with being able to make a lot of money.
So with this in mind, we as a society have demanded access to information that
allows the public and the press to monitor our so-called public servants. The Freedom
of Information Act as George Monbiot points out in his article
in the Guardian today, is of no use when it comes to the corporations, who are holding the
taxpayer to ransom, and the consumer in contempt.

As it stands Corporations hide behind ‘corporate
confidentiality’, aided by a willing set of politicians who are happy to defend
the deals they have created on behalf of their paymasters. This behaviour and
protection should play no part in a transparent society, but then again, our
MPs and Lords are not only representing the needs of the corporations over the
public, they are the corporations. They sit on the boards, they are the
directors, advisors and seats in government, they make the rules for
themselves, and they then vote on these rules despite the conflicts of
interest.

Our politics is broken, 60% of our ecosystems are degraded,
deregulation and greed is taking us to the brink, surveillance is everywhere,
police monitor protesters who are legitimately using their right to protest, feeding
information to the corporations who are being targeted; and create blacklists
preventing politically involved people from getting jobs. We have seen how
corrupt they are, taking payments from Murdoch’s hacks, and occasionally getting
away with murder. All this happening without a privatised force, what will they
be like once they are owned by a corporation? This frightening handing over of
our services to corporations is increasingly in every area of our lives, our
schools, energy, health, roads, water, housing, government, and it appears
there is no limit to their greed.

What have the corporations actually given us? Name
a public utility privatisation that has benefited the taxpayer and the
consumer? The price of fuel is going through the roof, house prices are
astronomical, trains are the most expensive in Europe, and so it goes on. In
this regard I present a great quote by Arian Hamilton, formerly of the
Institute of Economic affairs when writing in the Observer on January 2nd
1994 on the privatisation of British Gas.

‘Whatever
else privatisation has done, it has done little for the consumer, at least in
the case of the electricity and resource industries. The City has done well out
of the sales of shares. The users have been bribed with the offer of cut-price
shares. The management has been bought off with huge pay rises and substantial
share options. (The present chairman of British Gas earns as much in a year as
his predecessor did in his entire career of building up the
industry)…Privatisation of British Gas has been a scandal. As a nationalised
industry, it had converted the entire country to natural gas and revolutionized
the energy scene. As a privatised company, it has done little more than sit
back and reward itself and its advisers from the benefits of former investments
and its dominant position.’

Society is falling into a deep dark hole and it
will take a huge effort to reverse this malignant politics, spearheaded by
corrupt, bigoted minds such as Francis Maude. What on Earth is someone like
Maude, who wishes to eradicate the state provision of public services, doing in
public office? Francis Maude like so many of our politicians are happy to take
a wage paid for by us, reap the benefits of a good pension, and then do their
utmost to destroy everything that has been built over the years. The idea that
he is a public servant is laughable, and he should be treated as such by both
us and the media.

One look through the
MP and Lords register of interests highlights the sheer volume of corporate
dominance in our politics. The staggering number of 142 Lords with financial
interests in companies involved in private healthcare is evidence enough of who
our parliamentarians represent. Take Margot James, who is seen on a video at a pharmaceutical
conference saying: ‘I keep saying ‘we’, but I’m not really part of the
industry anymore, but I still feel it.’
This would explain why she was so keen to sit on the Health and Social Care
bill committee in order to: ‘play a part in that debate
and go on the committee to really iron out the details...’

How are
we meant to trust them, when we watch Peter Cruddas offering access to the
Prime Minister for £250,000 and he is allowed to resign rather than be placed
under arrest, and investigated. It was remarkable that the Conservatives wheeled
out Francis Maude to say the revelations were nothing more than: ‘"embarrassing
and wrong, and not true…That's not the way we do business and raise money, and
we're very clear about that."

Why
should the press accept anything he says as anything but a lie, fuelled by
self-interests of his connections outside of parliament. Francis Maude who was
a director a PR firm called Huntsworth, who are run by a Conservative Lord, called
Lord Chadlington, who has donated money to Cameron as has his company. Why don’t
the media with access to these interests challenge Maude’s authenticity when he
speaks on such matters?

The list is endless. Cameron making Lord Popat a
Peer after he donated money to the Conservative party, Mark
Simmonds, paid £50,000 a year to work just 10 hours a month as “strategic
adviser” to Circle Health, George Osbourne who received donation through
Conservative Campaign Headquarters to run his office from Julian
Schild. Julian Schild’s family made £184million in 2006 by selling
hospital bed-makers Huntleigh Technology. Andrew Lansley who accepted
money from Care UK chairman John Nash to run his office.

They behave this way, because they are allowed to
get away with it. The BBC utterly failed to challenge Andrew Lansley on his
private healthcare links throughout the course of the Health and Social Care
bill. In fact, aside from an article in
2008 highlighting the links between cabinet ministers and their private
donations, their challenging of the Health Secretary was notable in its absence.

However the media can only accept some of the
blame, we the public have not taken to the streets in the numbers required, the
Unions have not called a strike to protect the NHS, and when Andrew Lansley was
found to have cheated his expenses by selling his home after renovating it on
taxpayers money, he was voted back in.

The latest vote however has clearly stated this
coalition is not wanted, but what damage will they do before they are ousted.
Will Labour, the likely beneficiaries, shed the skin of New Labour and turn
away from a free market capitalist system that has caused so much damage to
both our society and our environment? France has chosen socialism in times of
austerity, do we have that option or is our Labour party still the same party
that lied to us about the Iraq war, and continued the expansion of
privatisation unabated?

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

When is an MP a
spokesperson for big business, and when is big business an MP? If you can’t
tell the difference, then you’re not alone, because some MPs are not so sure
themselves.

Margot James is
the Conservative MP for Stourbridge; having won her seat in the 2010 election
to become one of the existing 15% of Tory Mps to come from a lobbying
background. However a film taken of her at a lobbying group conference reveals
she hasn’t really left it behind?

In 2004, Margot James was the
Co-founder of public relations company, Shire
Health Group, until she sold her firm to business partner and leading
advertising giant Ogilvy &
Mather for £4 million. In the process of the sale, Ms James
became the Head of European Healthcare for Oglivy & Mather who are part of
the WPP Group, one of the big three marketing and communications conglomerates.

In January 2005, the WPP Group formed a new healthcare area with the merger of Ogilvy
Healthcare, and Healthworld Communications Group. Margot James, who was
head of Ogilvy Healthcare at the time, as well as being a parliamentary
spokesperson for the Conservative Party, took the role of regional president of
the merged company. Ogilvy Healthworld provides marketing and medical education
services to the pharmaceutical industry.

She stood down from her role in
2008, at the same time as giving up being a councillor in the Brompton ward of
Kensington and Chelsea. Ms James wanted more however, and moved from a person
of industry, to become an MP.

Yet, it appears the lure of her
previous work has been too difficult to stay away from. Since becoming an MP, Ms James has continued to speak at events
hosted by Healthcare Communication Associations (HCA), a lobbying group which according to its website, ‘has sufficient
influence and credibility to shape opinion and lead debate.’

This statement is true.

Aside from the pharmaceutical
giants who are listed as members, the HCA has a company called Huntsworth
Health on its list, which is owned by Conservative Peer Lord Chadlington. The
Lord has given money to David Cameron for his leadership campaign, and Huntsworth
Health have provided donations to the party every year since 2008. Such
influence in itself is a cause for concern, but another member in the HCA list is
Ms James’s old employer Olgivy & Mather. This leaves the HCA with two
voices in each of the parliamentary houses, and one vote in each house that helped
pass the Health and Social Care bill into Act

Lobbying is rife, permeating
every area of our political system and if Peter Cruddas the Tory co-treasurer
is anything to go by ‘premiership’ access to policy change can be bought. Margot
James sought confirmation on this in by asking Conservative MP Francis Maude to
’confirm
that no such policy committee as described by Mr Cruddas exists at No.10 and
that there is no evidence that any policy has been changed by private lobbying.’
Naturally, Mr Maude denied it was possible to bend policy in such a way

Margot however, certainly knows the way it works, having admitted she has made ‘some introductions to shadow ministers for charities and businesses,’ although she is adamant that this
waspurely on a ‘public interest
basis.’ Incidentally, in
her capacity as European president for Oligvy & Mather she gave evidence
to the 2005 Health Select Committee inquiry in to the Influence of the
Pharmaceutical Industry, which concluded that the “close contact between the UK
Government and the pharmaceutical industry in formulating health policy was
illustrated by Ms Margot James”

Fortunately walls have ears
and organisations are keen to boast, so when Margot James came to speak at an
event hosted by the HCA, somebody filmed it. The seminar entitled: ‘The future
of healthcare Communications’, took place in October 2010, two months prior to
the publication of the White paper: Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS,
and after she became MP.

On taking to the podium, Ms
James began by informing her audience how she was hoping
to ‘go on the bill (Health) committee once the second reading of the health
bill…comes to parliament.’ This she achieved, placing herself in a position
where she could affect the bill in the interests of her former industry.

A little further
into the video, she is seen telling the enthralled audience how she intends to;
‘play a part in that debate and go on the committee to really iron out the
details...’ For the public good no doubt, although halfway though she mentions:
‘I keep saying ‘we’, but I’m not really part of the industry anymore, but I
still feel it.’

There is no
doubt about that, which is why when someone from the audience asks her how to
bridge the gap between themselves and the new GP consortia, she offers them
some advice: ‘If you’ve got it down to a consortia level, and you’ve got a few
people old-style people who are just anti the industry for whatever reason,
from way back when, you’ve got to find other people I think, that you can
influence…that you can prove that those other people are wrong and who don’t
speak for the wider good industry can bring. So it’s not easy but I do think
it’s possible by dividing your audience in the way I’ve just described.’

Imagine my
surprise then, when I came across an article in the
Huffington Post written by Ms James titled: ‘Tackling Vested Interests in
the NHS’. Needless to say she wasn’t talking about her own interests, but was
claiming the debate over NHS reform was
being ‘framed by vested interests in the NHS; principally the royal colleges
and trade unions.’ Huffington Post like many media outlets allow our politicians to present blatant propaganda unchallenged in the name of 'impartiality'.

So Margot James another lobbying agent turned MP, was able to sit on the Health
and Social Care bill committee, and vote on the Health and Social Care bill,
despite having such clear and obvious conflicts of interest. She, like many MPs
and Lords are playing their part in the weakening of our democracy, but perhaps
when the people of Stourbridge next take to the ballot, they may want to ask
themselves, who does my MP actually serve?